Choices: Naru Osaka
by Zaxxon
Summary: AZH/SM X-Over One-Shot. We all have choices to make throughout our lives, some temporary while some are permanent. Our options may not be always of our choosing, but when given a choice, which option will you take?


Yes, I wrote this over fifteen years ago, and for whatever am finally posting this.

"Choices:  
Naru Osaka"

a  
crossover story  
involving

The Adventures of Zaxxon Hunter  
and  
Sailor Moon

by  
Shaule "_Zaxxon_" Sachs

* * *

Version 0.1  
Jan 16, 1999

Author's Notes:

(1) "Sailor Moon" and characters do not belong to me and are used solely for the enjoyment of its fans.

(2) "Zaxxon Hunter", "Highlords of Atlantis", and "Primes" are the original material created by Shaule Sachs.  
Please do NOT use without permission or acknowledgment.

(3) Conventions that shall be used...  
Words that are italic will be between / /.  
Words that are bold will be between * *.  
Thoughts will be italicized.

Once more, Naru Osaka was fleeing for her life. A youma had appeared not a meter from where she was standing not a moment ago. As soon as she saw the youma, she began to scream and ran away. The youma began chasing her.

"Why me?" Naru asked rhetorically to the world at large.

She just ran as fast as she could. Not caring where she went, just so long as it was away from the youma. A few moments later, she saw the Sailor Senshi. She ran towards them. It was then that she noticed that they were in a park. She ran passed the Sailor Senshi into the park's wood, for protection. Not that she didn't think that the Sailor Senshi couldn't stopped the youma. Okay, technically it wasn't a 'youma' per say, meaning a 'monster' from the Negaverse, since the Sailor Senshi had stopped them. But Naru called any monster that the Senshi fought a youma. She wasn't going to stick around to discover what the 'correct' term was.

Once 'safely' behind a tree, she asked again, "Why do these things keep happening to me? Why me?"

"Why not you?" a male voice asked back.

"Who?" Naru replied, surprised. She thought that she was alone in the woods. She saw a Gaijin man standing behind her. Although, she couldn't decided if in fact he was a foreigner. She thought he looked old since his hair was white, but he had a 'young-looking' face, and his hair was naturally white, not gray of old age. She was struck by his brownish eyes... that had that look some people had, whose that had seen too much. The man was tall. She estimated his height maybe a little less than two meters tall. He looked very fit, able to deal within anything that could happen - be it something needing to be carried, something to be fixed, or a youma attack.

The man looked embarrassed for a moment, then said in perfect Japanese, "How rude of me. I should introduce myself... I have many names... But, you can call me, Zaxxon, if you wish."

He seeing that Naru was slightly embarrassed that he was being informal by giving his first name only, he added, "Sorry, I don't have a 'family' name..."

With slight reluctance Naru replied, "Good afternoon, Zaxxon-san... I'm Osaka Naru."

"And a good afternoon to you too, Miss Osaka," Zaxxon returned.

There was a loud explosion causing Naru to turn around and viewed the battle. The youma was using a large sword that Naru didn't notice before. Using the sword, the youma was able to block the Senshi's attacks and was holding its own against them.

Zaxxon sighed and stated, "It's sad. After everything that they've been through, that they're not going to survive this battle..."

"Nani?" Naru exclaimed. "The Sailor Senshi always win..."

"Not this time, I'm afraid," Zaxxon replied in a sad voice.

"Why?" she asked.

Zaxxon pointed towards the battle field. The Sailor Senshi were losing... Sailors Mercury and Saturn laid motionless on the ground to the left and a way from the youma. Sailors Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus were a bloody mess with various cuts all over their bodies. Sailors Venus and Pluto, barely able to stand, stood defiantly between the youma and a crying Sailor Moon, who was sitting in the dirt with a still Tuxedo Kamen in her arms. Sailor Neptune laid by the youma's feet, as she tried to get up, the youma stabbed her with its sword. Uranus screamed and charged wildly at the youma. Only to be cut down with the same sword that stabbed her lover.

Naru could only stare as the Senshi fell one by one. She turned to Zaxxon and said, "*You* have to do *something*?"

With a sad smile, he replied, "Sure... *I* can *destroy* the monster attacking the Sailor Senshi quite easily..."

"Then do so!" Naru screamed.

"But," Zaxxon began, "In doing so, I will also destroy the entire Universe as well..."

"Nani!?" exclaimed Naru. She took a few steps away from him.

Zaxxon shrugged and said, "Such is my power... my nature... Now, you see my problem?"

"But," Naru said over and over again.

Naru noticed a flash came from the battle field. She turned as saw the Senshi still fighting the youma. But she noticed that instead of Sailors Venus and Pluto protecting a sitting Sailor Moon with Tuxedo Kamen in her arms, Tuxedo Kamen was holding a pale Sailor Moon in his arms, with Sailors Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto leading guard. Sailors Mars, Mercury, Saturn, and Uranus were obvious down and out.

In surprise, Naru whispered, "Huh?"

"Sailor Pluto used her powers to go back in Time and warned the Senshi's of their fate," Zaxxon replied sadly. "As you see, even forewarned, the Sailor Senshi are still faring poorly."

There was a series of flashes.

Zaxxon explained, "Each flash you, Naru, see represents Sailor Pluto's jumping backwards in Time.. Each time, Sailor Pluto goes back in Time, she changes something different, in a vain attempt to change the outcome of this battle..."

Naru saw more flashes.

Between flashes, she saw the Sailor Senshi "changed" between flashes. Sailor Venus's "uniform" changed from her usual outfit, to something similar to Jupiter's, then to something like Mars, and then back to her usual outfit. Sailor Mars's hair went from black, to blonde, to red, and back to black. Sailor Jupiter went from tall, to short, to fat, and back to tall. Sailor Mercury went from a blue-haired girl, to a black-hair guy, to a bandana-wearing martial artist, and back to a blue-haired girl. It became obvious to Naru that Sailor Pluto even tried using different people as the Senshi. But, equally obvious was the fact that it didn't make a difference.

Then there was a huge flash that lasted longer than the others. Naru could see there were more people on the battle field beside the nine Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen fighting and more on the ground. There was a good-looking boy wearing a red Chinese silk outfit striking out at the youma with his hands and feet like some martial artist out of myth. There was another good-looking boy wearing a white robe with a sword whose blade seemed to be made out of light with wings, also made out of light, coming out of his back. The two boys seemed to be the only ones holding their own against the youma until the youma's eyes narrowed and grabbed Sailor Pluto.

There was another flash and Naru screamed.

There was nothing.

Literal nothing.

The lack of anything.

No matter which direction Naru looked...

There was nothing.

No trees.

No sky.

No clouds.

No ground.

Nothing.

Except herself.

Herself standing... floating... in a void.

A void of nothingness.

Naru knew she should feel something... sorrow, anger, fear...

But, she felt calm.

In a monotone voice, she asked, "What happened? Why aren't I dead too?"

A sigh seemed to surround her. From all around her, she heard Zaxxon say, "I destroyed your Universe..."

"Nani?" Naru stated in a flat voice. "Where are you?"

To her right, at least, she thought of it as her right, Zaxxon appeared and said, "You really need a focal point to deal with things, don't you..."

Zaxxon sighed again and muttered to himself, "Humans..."

Out loud, Zaxxon said, "Did you wonder why the Senshi had so much trouble with that youma?"

"Well..." Naru began and then shrugged.

"That youma was intelligent," Zaxxon stated. "It studied the Senshi since their first appearance... Letting others test the Senshi... Noting their strengths and weaknesses... Learning their abilities... How they worked and how they fought.

"It used that information against the Senshi. Not only that, but the youma could duplicate the Senshi's powers. So basically, the Senshi were fighting themselves... an evil version of themselves all rolled up into a single being.

"Sailor Pluto finally realized this... So she did the only thing she could... she got *outside* help."

"'Outside help?'" Naru questioned.

"As in outside your Universe," Zaxxon replied. "And the Senshi and those others might have defeated the youma until the youma started to duplicate the others' powers and realized that there is more to the Cosmos than just your Universe...

"After duplicating all those heroes and heroines' powers, that youma represented a threat to the Multiverse... Maybe even to the Omniverse..."

Zaxxon shook his head and said, "That couldn't be... So I destroyed your Universe, so the Multiverse could live..."

"But," Naru asked, "Why did you do that in the beginning?"

A sad smile appeared on Zaxxon's face as he said, "Naru-san, look around you, above you, and below you. What do you see?"

After doing so, Naru replied, "Nothing..."

"Right," Zaxxon said. "Nothing... My powers are such that not only did I destroy your Universe at that moment, but your Universe no longer exists."

"Nani?" Naru asked calmly. She was puzzled. She should be screaming now, but, she wasn't.

"Your Universe no longer exists," Zaxxon stated. He shrugged and said, "From the moment before your Universe existed to the /actual/ end of your Universe... I've wiped it all away. Not a single quark remains... Not from the 'Big Bang' or from the 'Big Crunch.' You are all that remains from your Universe."

"But," Naru was literally out of her depth at this moment.

"Why did I save you and not the others?" Zaxxon asked the question that Naru was thinking. "To show you what is at stake... and a chance to talk..."

"Talk?" Naru asked surprised.

"Actually, to propose a deal... to be accurate," Zaxxon stated.

"Deal? What deal?" Naru replied.

"As I said, I couldn't for all my power save the Senshi without destroying the Universe," Zaxxon stated. "But... I can give you the power do so... To be my foci within your Universe."

"Huh?" Naru was confused.

"It's a question of scale," Zaxxon explained. "To me, your Universe is just one small speck... One of literally an infinite number of Universes that make up the Multiverse. The all the related Multiverse, together, make up the various Omniverses, from which the Cosmos is made up of."

"Huh?" Naru was even greater confused now.

"Let's just say, the Cosmos is a very big place, where someplace, somehow, anything is possible," Zaxxon stated.

Feeling small, Naru just replied, "Okay."

All of a sudden, Naru found herself back where she was. She saw herself run passed the Sailor Senshi. Her other-self was heading right at her.

Then everything, the Sailor Senshi, the youma, and her other-self, froze.

"Here's the deal," Zaxxon stated. "Now, I can't condense my power to only affect one World, especially a single being on that World. But I can leave behind a 'drop' of my power... Which someone, such as yourself, could draw upon over a period of time.

"While this drop of power can be compared to a single raindrop to an ocean, in other words, meaningless - to me. It would make you one of the most powerful being in your Universe, maybe in your entire Multiverse, in fact..."

"Is it enough to save the Sailor Senshi and World?" Naru asked. That's all that mattered after all.

"Yes. But, Power requires a price," Zaxxon replied.

"Price?" Naru inquired. "What price must I pay to save the Sailor Senshi... my friends... everything?"

"'They' say 'power corrupts.' But that's not necessarily true," Zaxxon explained. "It depends on one's definition of power and some other factors... But, Power does change a person...

"Power, especially what I'm offering to you... While I can't explain it in your language, in terms you would understand. The least of the price is that you will different... Set apart from everything, everyone else... There will be people who will fear you regardless if desire that fear or not. And of course, the responsibility to use your power wisely... correctly...

"In order to save the Sailor Senshi... Are you prepared to live your life out... alone? To deal with your failures... along with your successes?"

In a quiet voice, Naru Osaka made a decision and said, "Yes."

In an equally quiet voice, the reply came, "So be it."

"That's it?" Naru asked in surprise as she and her other-self combined. "I don't feel any different."

The Universe and Zaxxon sighed.

"We're in trouble here," Venus said as she saw Mercury, Saturn, and Tuxedo Kamen go down. The others were cut up pretty badly. Sailor Moon ran to Tuxedo Kamen. Venus and Pluto moved to protect the Princess.

Sailor Pluto shook her head and kept muttering, "This shouldn't be happening."

Uranus looked at Neptune and said, "This is the end, Love... It's been fun..."

Then there was a very loud rumbling of thunder and a shout, "By the North Wind! This shall not be!"

A brown blur passed the Senshi and struck the youma. The youma went flying into orbit.

Where the youma once stood unaffected by the Senshi's powers, stood a young woman.

"She's beautiful," Uranus stated in awe. Neptune snorted.

"Wow," both Jupiter and Venus added.

The Sailor Senshi looked at their savior. She stood at two meters, even, and a tan that seemed to cover her entire body. Which couldn't be said of her outfit, which only covered the essentials. Even then, the outfit emphasized more than it concealed. Jupiter noted that the young woman's chest was larger than hers.

"What the?!" exclaimed both Mars and a recovering Mercury as they noted the young woman's pointy ears and thin body.

"Oooo... an elf!" Sailor Moon shouted. "She looks just like 'Kitakaze, Elven Warrior Princess,' from 'Kamikaze' manga!"

Kitakaze looked at Sailor Moon, and exclaimed a very musical voice, "Usagi! You're Sailor Moon?"

Kitakaze shook her head as if to clear it and pointed her finger at Sailor Saturn. A blue flame leaped from her outstretched hand and engulfed Saturn.

"Why you!" Mars exclaimed as she advanced towards Kitakaze as she said, "Mars Flame Sniper!"

A fire arrow flies from Sailor Mars towards Kitakaze, who sticks out her hand as if motioning for Mars to stop. The fire arrow disappears upon contact with Kitakaze. Mars stopped running and blinked in surprise.

"I need to finish what I started," Kitakaze stated as she jumped into the air and flew off.

"Kitakaze," Sailor Moon called out to stop Kitakaze, but by the time she finished her name, Kitakaze was out of sight. To herself, she muttered, "What about Saturn-chan?"

"What about me?" Sailor Saturn asked, puzzled.

Upon seeing Saturn restored to health, all the Senshi hugged her.  
[=== End ===]


End file.
